Thanks to recent, tumultuous events in my life - namely the sickness of my own father last year, I was spurred on to make changes in my own life. In particular, my diet.

I've already spoken about this before, but it certainly warrants repeating. Eating plant-based isn't good enough. As one of my favourite sources of nutritional information, Doctor Greger says - and don't quote me on the accuracy of this - 'even a diet based on Oreos and potato chips is vegan'.

Being vegan doesn't necessarily mean healthy.

If we are looking to improve our health outcomes and increase our longevity, we need to be incorporating whole foods into our diets. There are so many people in my life that overvalue the worth of instant tastes at the long term expense of their health. Worse yet, are the people who claim to be health conscious, yet are still over-consuming the worst kinds of food - dairy for calcium, chicken because of the 'lean protein' and eggs for even more protein. The evidence is piling up against all of these foods suggesting that they're about as good for you as smoking is at freshening your breath.

The most alarming part of the latter 'health conscious' group is that they are lulled into thinking they're already on the right path and don't maintain their nutritional knowledge.

Maintaining one's evidence-based nutritional knowledge.

I've come across a special cohort of individuals who have the defeatist attitude that because science changes, that is, in the eyes of these people, "the experts are just going to change their minds about so and so next year so why do we bother listening to any of them?"

I'll tell you why science is the only rational reason why you should be making any health-based nutritional choice.

I'll admit that not all studies are created equal, and not all funding comes without attachment to a vested interest in a particular outcome, but the scientific method and the format of scientific literature is what allows us to see glimpses into the effects of foods and their components on individuals and on populations.

If you're unsure about the quality of a study, take a look at the method. How was the study conducted? Those looking for the most robust evidence look for randomized, placebo-controlled, double blind tests. Additionally, avoiding observational studies where possible is also better. This allows the researcher to minimise biases and compare results between a group receiving intervention and one that isn't (the placebo). When observing a group, there may be confounding factors that mess everything up. These factors are hidden variables that aren't accounted for. For example, when observing a vegan group compared to a non-vegan group it may appear that the vegan group have a lower BMI than the non-vegan group. You may falsely be attributing this difference to the differences in their diets. What may not be recognised is that the vegan group may be so because they have a greater interest in personal health - which may include exercise as well as dietary intake. So unless you found vegans and non-vegan groups that engaged in the same level of physical activity, you couldn't be certain it was diet alone. So you are starting to see my point.

Use this as a guide to help you when you're doing your own research on PubMed or within Google Scholar. Additionally, newer research is usually better because this research has the benefit of being built upon previous work. While Nutrition Facts is an excellent source of information relating to diet, if you're unsure about something mentioned or question the credibility of an article, take the time to read the literature yourself and speak with friends or community members who may be able to assist you in interpreting scientific articles. I take my science degrees for granted at times and forget that we don't all speak the jargon. It is certainly worth familiarising yourself with the way medical science literature is written.

When I was sitting in the hospital room with my dad last year, I downloaded Dr. Greger's book, 'How Not to Die.'

I tried to convey the evidence to dad in the hopes he would implement these changes, seeing as though he was clearly the one who was in most need of it. However, I was in complete control of my own life, so why wouldn't I adopt these changes, too? I wanted to live a long life and be functional by the end of it. I don't want to be sick and want to remain as active and alert for as long as possible. Changes on my part were inevitable.

I already ate quite a lot of nuts and grains. However, eating more greens was probably the hardest thing for me to incorporate. As it turns out, greens, or more specifically, cruciferous vegetables are the healthiest vegetables we have available to us. You can gorge yourself on green, leafy vegetables and not gain an ounce of fat and you'll be flooding your body's cells in a rich soup of health-promoting phytonutrients.

I decided to get my greens in smoothie-form.

After stripping off all the leaves, only the stems remain. These are all gobbled up by the worms.

My green smoothies are an ever evolving form of nutriment. A few things have remained constant while other ingredients come and go.

These Include:

• Kale
• Blueberries
• Ginger
• Turmeric

I'd love to hear about your healthful 'must-haves'. If you've come this far, drop a comment and a friendly upvote.

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original.

Disclosure: This article was not a paid promotion and was not self-upvoted. Nor were there any affiliate links.

---

Thank you so much for your support on my Steemit Space. Please Upvote, Comment and Follow @nickmorphew for regular content.

I do my best to engage with all thoughtful comments. This space absolutely invigorates me, so shoot me a comment.. even a critical one. I love fans and I love argumentative a-holes. I don’t discriminate.

---

I’m still looking for an artist to cover my work on my fantasy saga, Adventures in Elowyn Glade. Please make some noise if you’re interested.

---